The best books of 2025

This list is part of the best books of 2025.

Join 1,210 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2025

Book cover of The Other Valley

Susan E. Wadds ❤️ loved this book because...

I found this to be the most unique “time travel” exploration I’ve ever read. It was a head-scratcher with a very satisfying end.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Thoughts 🥈 Originality
  • Writing style

    👍 Liked it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Scott Alexander Howard ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Other Valley as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Astonishingly brilliant. My book of the year.' Liz Nugent, Sunday Times-bestselling author of Strange Sally Diamond

For fans of Emily St John Mandel and Kazuo Ishiguro, an exhilarating novel about an isolated town neighboured by its own past and future, and a young girl who faces an impossible choice...

Would you sacrifice the future for love?

Sixteen-year-old Odile vies for a coveted seat on an elite council that decides who may cross her town's heavily guarded borders. To the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it's twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of Fight Night

Susan E. Wadds ❤️ loved this book because...

The young, unique voice of the narrator pulled me right in. How she was able to evoke strong emotions and the sense of loss without EVER appearing self-pitying. I adored the subtle humour and quirky, relatable characters.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Writing
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Miriam Toews ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Fight Night as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

FROM THE WRITER OF THE OSCAR-WININNG WOMEN TALKING
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR
LONGLISTED FOR THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

'Go Grandma Elvira!' Margaret Atwood
'Wickedly funny and fearlessly honest.' The New Yorker
'Glorious.' Sarah Moss
____________
You are a small thing, and you must learn to fight.

Swiv has taken this advice too literally. Now she's suspended from school, in the care of her foul-mouthed, hilarious grandmother.

Mom is busy being pregnant, so Grandma gives Swiv a very different education. Swiv learns maths with Amish jigsaws and How to Dig a Winter Grave. Grandma's methods may be unorthodox, but she has faced…


My 3rd favorite read in 2025

Book cover of This Is Happiness

Susan E. Wadds ❤️ loved this book because...

The voice! The narrator is so incredibly endearing. The almost subversive humour was delightful. The pace was deliberate and the various threads so-well crafted, I have listened to this book three times. It makes me so happy.

  • Loved Most

    🥇 Character(s) 🥈 Immersion
  • Writing style

    ❤️ Loved it
  • Pace

    🐕 Good, steady pace

By Niall Williams ,

Why should I read it?

18 authors picked This Is Happiness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Shortlisted for Best Novel in the Irish Book Awards Longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction From the acclaimed author of Man Booker-longlisted History of the Rain 'Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive' Sunday Times 'A love letter to the sleepy, unhurried and delightfully odd Ireland that is all but gone' Irish Independent After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha, a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain. But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish - the electricity is finally arriving. With it…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Book cover of What the Living Do

What is my book about?

Sex and death consume much of thirty-seven-year-old Brett Catlin’s life. Cole, ten years her junior, takes care of the former while her job disposing of roadkill addresses the latter. When a cancer diagnosis makes her question her worth, suspecting the illness is payback for the deaths of her father and baby sister, she begins a challenging journey of healing and self-discovery. Encounters with animals, both living and dead, help her answer the question, who is worth saving?

Book cover of The Other Valley
Book cover of Fight Night
Book cover of This Is Happiness

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